Domain-based management of distribution of digital content from multiple suppliers to multiple wireless services subscribers

ABSTRACT

A network server system includes a download manager that manages the publication, purchase and delivery of digital content from multiple content suppliers to wireless services subscribers in multiple domains. Each domain is defined as a different grouping of subscribers, such as a wireless carrier or subsidiary thereof, a business enterprise, or other defined group of subscribers. The download manager maintains data defining the multiple domains and associations between the domains and wireless services subscribers. Digital content suppliers can publish and manage their products on the server system via a computer network and make their products available to the subscribers for purchase or licensing. The subscribers in each of the domains can access the server remotely to purchase rights to download and use the digital content on associated wireless communication devices.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication nos: 60/393,024; 60/392,383; 60/393,041; and 60/392,999,each of which was filed on Jun. 28, 2002, and each of which isincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

At least one embodiment of the present invention pertains to systems andmethods for providing digital content to wireless services subscribers,and more particularly, to facilitating management and delivery ofdigital content from multiple content suppliers to multiple wirelessservices subscribers in multiple domains.

BACKGROUND

Personal mobile communication/computing devices, such as cellulartelephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and two-way pagers, havebecome commonplace in many countries. These devices are referred tocollectively herein as “mobile devices” or “wireless devices”. Thecurrent state-of-the-art of mobile devices has advanced far beyond thatof their predecessors. For example, early cellular telephones were usedanalog signals to communicate over wireless telecommunications networks(or simply “wireless networks”) and were nothing more than mobiletelephones. Today's cellular telephones typically are all digital andprovide many other functions in addition to telephony capability. Forexample, many of the latest generation of mobile telephones (and othermobile devices) allow their users to play games, access World Wide Webpages, exchange email, exchange and download files, exchange shortmessaging service (SMS) messages, and send and receive video.

With new mobile devices providing a wider range of capabilities, thereis increasing demand among the users of these devices (i.e., wirelessservices subscribers) for new and interesting types of digital contentthat can be used on these mobile devices, such as games and otherapplications, images, ring tones, screensavers, wallpapers, etc.Although newer mobile devices often come pre-provisioned with certaindigital products when first acquired by the subscriber, it is desirableto allow subscribers to acquire additional digital products for use intheir mobile devices as such products become available. While thiscapability already exists, currently subscribers acquire digital contentdirectly from the content suppliers (typically via the wireless networkand the Internet). This process is inconvenient if a subscriber wishesto acquire various different items of digital content from differentsuppliers, since the subscriber must navigate to the web sites ofdifferent suppliers. Therefore, it is further desirable to make manydifferent types of digital content available to subscribers at one timethrough a centralized “store”.

From the content supplier's perspective, another impediment to theefficient distribution of digital content is the fact that differentmobile devices often require different content packaging formats andprovisioning protocols. In order to make a given item of digital contentavailable to multiple mobile devices supporting different provisioningmodels, a digital content supplier will normally deploy that item ofcontent multiple times, packaging it differently for each of theprovisioning models. For example, an image to be delivered to Nokia-CODphones and Sprint-GCD OTA phones would be deployed twice,custom-packaged for each of those two delivery modes. It is veryburdensome for digital content suppliers to have to package andprovision the digital content they produce in a manner that is suitablefor all of the devices in the marketplace. Moreover, it is difficult forcontent suppliers to keep up with the constant changes in devicecapabilities for the many mobile devices in the marketplace.Consequently, there is often a gap between the interoperability of agiven digital product and how effective it can be used on a device.Therefore, the problem exists of how to efficiently allow many digitalcontent providers to distribute many different types of digital contentto subscribers using many different types of mobile devices.

A related problem is how to charge subscribers for the digital contentthey acquire. In one known system. The wireless carrier's system iscapable of connecting to an external billing system and provides billingevents to that system when a subscriber performs a chargeable action.However, this scenario assumes that all subscribers belong to a singleorganization that also owns the billing system. Furthermore, it assumesthat a single currency is used. Yet many multi-national organizationshave a parent company with subsidiaries in many countries. Differentcountries have different currencies, taxes and other charges. Eachsubsidiary may implement its own support/business infrastructure to dealwith local regulations and customs, particularly with respect to thebilling process. Consequently, the carrier's system must be able togenerate billing events and direct them to the appropriate externalbilling system. Furthermore, it must be able to present the customerwith a charge for each service, in the applicable currency and expressedin a way that is appropriate considering local taxes, fees and otherregulations.

One way to address this problem, which only partially solves it, is touse credit card systems. In this scenario, the credit card company actsas an intermediary in the billing process. This approach consolidatesall billing at one point. Settlement is done between the product/serviceprovider and the subscriber provider (e.g., the wireless carrier) for afee. This approach, however, does not handle the currency, taxes, feesand regulations issues mentioned above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention includes a method and apparatus for providing access todigital content for use on wireless communication devices. A serversystem maintains data defining multiple domains, each of the domainsdefined as a different subset of multiple wireless services subscribers.The server system enables multiple digital content suppliers to publishdigital content on the server system via a computer network and to makethe digital content available on the server system to the wirelessservices subscribers. The server system further enables subscribers ineach of the multiple domains to purchase rights to download and use thedigital content on associated wireless communication devices via atleast one wireless network.

Other features of the present invention will be apparent from theaccompanying drawings and from the detailed description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by wayof example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanyingdrawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates the relationship between the download manager,content suppliers, and subscribers;

FIG. 2 shows a network architecture in which a download manager inaccordance with the invention can be deployed;

FIG. 3 schematically shows the components of the download manager;

FIG. 4 shows the components of the device capability manager;

FIG. 5 shows the relationship between a product entry andimplementations of the product in the product catalog;

FIG. 6 shows the relationship between a product and its implementations;

FIG. 7 shows how various data elements are used in the billing process;

FIG. 8 illustrates a simplified process by which a product can be listedin the product catalog in a way that facilitates device-tailored productdiscovery and provisioning;

FIG. 9 shows a process by which the product catalog is displayed to asubscriber;

FIG. 10 shows a process by which a purchase of a product can be madeusing the download manager;

FIG. 11 illustrates the separation, within the download manager, ofcontent from how the content is provisioned;

FIG. 12 illustrates a process by which a product is provisioned in aclient device using the appropriate one of various provisioningprotocols;

FIG. 13 shows an example of the software deployment architecture of thedownload manager; and

FIG. 14 illustrates the hardware architecture of a computer system inwhich the download manager can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method for efficiently managing the publication, purchaseand delivery of digital content from multiple content suppliers tomultiple wireless services subscribers in multiple domains are describedbelow. As used in this description, the terms “digital content”,“digital product”, “content”, and “product” are used interchangeably andmean software and/or data embodying things such as games and otherapplications, applets or the like; images; screensavers; wallpaper; ringtones; etc., particularly (but not necessarily exclusively) thosedesigned for use in mobile devices such as cellular telephones, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), and other small-footprint wireless/mobiledevices. For convenience the terms “purchase” or “buy” are used to meaneither actual purchase or any other conventional way in which asubscriber can acquire rights to use digital content (e.g., by acquiringa license).

Overview

As described in greater detail below, a system which managespublication, purchase and delivery of digital content is implemented ina network server system that includes one or more server computersystems on a network. The server system includes an application serverreferred to herein as the “download manager”. Digital content supplierscan publish and manage their products using the download manager via acomputer network, such as the Internet, and can make their productsavailable to wireless services subscribers through the download managerfor purchase or licensing. Subscribers can access the server system viawireless networks to purchase rights to download and use the digitalcontent on their wireless communication devices.

FIG. 1 illustrates the relationship between the download manager,content suppliers, and wireless services subscribers (users of mobiledevices). The download manager 1 acts as an intermediary betweenmultiple content suppliers 2 (e.g., 2A, 2B, etc.) and multiple customers(e.g., 3A, 3B, etc.), e.g., wireless services subscribers, belonging tomultiple “domains”. In the supply chain process for distribution ofdigital content, a content supplier 2 adds a digital product to the setof products managed by the download manager 1 (i.e., products “in thestore”). The supplier 2 then associates various attributes with theproduct. Once the product has been submitted to the product store, aproduct administrator associated with the download manager 1 verifiesits quality and determines whether it should be made available to thecustomers 2 or if it should be rejected. Once the product is approved,customers 2 can buy the product by accessing the download manager 1 fromtheir client devices.

To facilitate description, it is henceforth assumed herein that thecustomers are users of mobile devices and, therefore, are subscribers ofwarless services (although that need not be the case); thus, customersare henceforth called “subscribers” herein. Note, however, that thetechniques described herein need not be limited to wireless servicessubscribers or mobile client devices.

Domains and Partner Management

Among other advantageous features, the download manager 1 facilitatespartner management. A “partner”, as the term is used herein, is anentity that holds a relationship to a subscriber for purposes ofdelivery of digital products, billing, returns, etc. For example, apartner can be an Internet portal, an Internet Service Provider (ISP), awireless carrier, an application service provider (ASP), etc. A partneralso appoints a number of content suppliers to supply products to theproduct store. Partner management is the concept of being able to assignresponsibility for various parts of the digital product supply chain todifferent categories of users.

The entities “within the store” (managed by the download manager 1)belonging to a partner are partitioned into entities called “domains”. A“domain”, as the term is used herein, is an entity, defined in thedownload manager 1, that describes the billing relationship between apartner and a set of subscribers, as well as describing a partitioningof product space and administrative responsibilities. As such, a domaincan represent a grouping of wireless services subscribers, such as awireless carrier or a subsidiary of a wireless carrier, a businessenterprise, or any other defined group of wireless services subscribers.The domain manager maintains a database of data defining theassociations between domains and partners, administrators, subscribersand products.

Domains facilitate the proper billing of subscribers from multipleorganizations and/or with multiple wireless carriers (or othersubscriber providers), and facilitate presentation of productdescriptions to subscribers in the languages and currencies appropriatefor their local countries or regions.

The domain entity is also used in the download manager 1 to classifyother entities as belonging to a domain 1-to-1, belonging to a domain1-to-many, many-to-many, or not belonging to a domain. In general, adomain captures the following relationships to the subscribers:

1) how subscribers are charged for the products they purchase and inwhich currency;

2) to which user groups the subscribers can belong;

3) from which product categories the subscribers can select products;and

4) which products are accessible to the subscribers.

In certain embodiments of the invention, a domain has the followingproperties:

-   -   a name (localized)    -   a description (localized)    -   a uniform resource locator (URL) to a web site giving further        description of the domain    -   a contact address including contact person, contact telephone        numbers, fax numbers and postal address    -   the currency to use for billing and display purposes    -   reference to handlers for various different payment models        (e.g., online payment, pre-payment and post-payment)    -   a set of references to rating handlers used for adjustment of        product prices

The name and the descriptions have localized values for the set oflanguages registered in the system.

The distinction between domain entities and non-domain entities alsoforms the basis for delegated administration. More specifically, foreach domain, the responsibility for supplying products, approving orrejecting products, etc. can be delegated to different suppliers andadministrators. Thus, each domain is associated with a set ofadministrators that handle the products in the store. In certainembodiments of the invention, these administrators include a systemadministrator, a domain administrator, a product administrator, and acustomer care administrator.

The system administrator is the overall administrator for the downloadmanager 1, who can create new domains and their respective domainadministrators to help regulate it. He also maintains the ability tocontrol non-domain entities such as devices, content types, etc. Thedomain administrator is the overall administrator for a given domain. Hehas the ability to manage all of the suppliers and subscribers for hisdomain as well as create product and customer care administrators forthe domain. The product administrator is responsible for managing theentire product lifecycle for the content submitted by the domain'ssuppliers. The customer care administrator is responsible for managingsubscribers belonging to the domain. Each subscriber belongs to only onedomain and can only see products for the domain to which he belongs.

A partner appoints a number of content suppliers who provide products tothe product store. A supplier can only submit products to the domain(s)to which he belongs. The relationship between suppliers and domains ismany-to-many. Products are approved and deployed separately for eachdomain.

From the content supplier's perspective, all entities in the downloadmanager 1 that are domain-related are only selectable based on thedomains to which the supplier can provide products. For example, asupplier can only choose from among the product categories and licensemodels that belong to the domains to which the supplier has the right tosupply products.

Network Environment

FIG. 2 shows a network architecture in which a download manager inaccordance with the invention can be advantageously deployed. One ormore wireless networks 22 are connected to a computer network 24 throughcorresponding gateways 23. The computer network 24 may be the Internet,although alternatively, it could be essentially any other type ofcomputer network, such as a corporate intranet, a local area network(LAN), etc., or a combination of such networks.

A number of mobile client devices 21 (e.g., 21A, 21B, etc.) operate oneach wireless network 22. A number of servers 25 (e.g., 5A, 5B, etc.)operate on the computer network 24 to provide a variety of services forthe mobile devices 21 and/or to one or more non-mobile client devices 29coupled to the computer network 24. For example, the servers 25 mayinclude World Wide Web servers, file servers, application servers, etc.

Each gateway 23 is operated by the wireless carrier of the wirelessnetwork to which it is directly connected. Each gateway 23 provides aninterface between a particular wireless network 22 and the computernetwork 24 (e.g., the Internet), providing routing and, if necessary,appropriate protocol translation and/or content transcoding. In somecases, the gateway 23 may be a standalone device or system. In othercases, the gateway 3 may be part of a more-capable server system thatprovides additional value-added services to users of client devices 21;such as a proxy service 27, a provisioning manager 28, etc.

A download manager 1 in accordance with the present invention isconnected to the computer network 24, either directly (as shown) orindirectly. The download manager 1 can be, but does not have to be,operated by a wireless carrier.

Download Manager

FIG. 3 schematically shows the download manager in greater detail,according to certain embodiments of the invention. In the illustratedembodiment, the major components of the download manager include adelivery manager 31, a product manager 32, a business & operationsmanager 33, and multiple protocol handlers 34. Each of these componentsis preferably implemented as software, data, or a combination ofsoftware and data. However, in other embodiments, some or all of thesecomponents could be implemented in hardwired circuitry. The downloadmanager 1 may also include a database 35 of published content, as shown,although at least some of the published content may instead be storedremotely.

The product manager 32 is the download manager's interface to thevarious content suppliers and provides centralized product cataloging(including enabling qualified content suppliers to register content foranalysis and publication) and complete product life cycle support (i.e.,management of content submission, analysis, approval, publication, use,maintenance, and eventual deactivation). The term “publication”, as usedherein, means making a product available on the download manager towireless services subscribers for downloading to their client devices.The delivery manager 31 is the download manager's interface to thevarious subscribers and is responsible for delivering purchased digitalcontent to subscribers, including invoking a protocol handlerappropriate for communicating with each requesting mobile device. Theprotocol handlers 34 support multiple product discovery protocols andmultiple product delivery protocols simultaneously. Hence, the protocolhandlers 34 include product discovery handlers (e.g., a WAP handler, aWeb handler, a Motorola Discovery handler) and product delivery handlers(e.g., a MIDP OTA handler, a Motorola OTA handler, a Nokia COD OTAhandler). The business & operations manager 33 is mainly responsible formanaging domain information and processes for charging subscribers forpurchases of content. These components are described further below.

As shown in FIG. 3, the delivery manager 31 in certain embodimentsincludes a security manager 36, a device capability manager 37, apersonal vault 38, a storefront 39, and a notification manager 40. Thestorefront 39 is a conventional graphical user interface for allowingsubscribers to make online purchases. It can be branded to a particularwireless carrier, for example, or other business entity. The securitymanager 36 is responsible for authentication of subscribers and clientdevices for purposes of purchasing content and preferably can supportmultiple authentication schemes, such as HTTP-based authentication,MSISDN/NIA based authentication, etc. The personal vault 38 stores, on asubscriber-by-subscriber basis, information to facilitate digital rightsmanagement (DRM), such as product licenses and/or other “purchase”information of the products purchased by each subscriber. This allows asubscriber to remove downloaded content from a mobile device withoutlosing rights to the product, or to recover products on a device incases of device hard reset, loss, etc.

The notification manager 40 can provide various types of notificationsto subscribers using various communication channels, such as email, SMS,and WAP Push. The notification manager 40 can generate notificationsautomatically, such as notifications of new products or productupgrades, or in response to commands from a system administrator, suchas account notifications, notifications of special promotions, etc.

The device capability manager 37 is responsible for device recognition(e.g., supporting device recognition through UAProf using Profileheaders and Profile-Diff headers), device capability determination(e.g., retrieving device descriptors using best efforts and appendingdevice capabilities to the session context), and device capabilitymanagement (e.g., automated management of UAProf capable devices andquarantine of undefined or partially defined devices). As describedfurther below, recognition of devices and their capabilities is used fora variety of purposes, such as to filter the set of available productsthat a subscriber can discover when connecting to the download manager1, to select the appropriate implementations of products that arepurchased, and to select the appropriate provisioning model forprovisioning a purchased product in a client device.

FIG. 4 shows the components of the device capability manager 37according to an embodiment of the invention. The device capabilitymanager 37 includes a device manager 41, a device handler manager 42, adelivery context cache 43, a set of device recognition handlers 44, adevice data access object (DAO) 45, a device information database 46, aUAProf parser 47, a UAProf resolver 48, a dm-config.xml file 49, and aDeviceVocabulary file 50. The device information database 46 storesinformation identifying mobile devices and their correspondingcapabilities. The device manager 41 contains all of the business logicthat supports the user interface and the rest of the download manager 1.The device DAO 45 contains all data logic and scripted query languagenecessary to communicate with the device information database 46.

The device handler manager 42 is responsible for discovering anddetermining the types of devices accessing the download manager 1. Uponstartup of the download manager 1, the device handler manager 42 loadsthe device recognition handlers 44 ordered by the dm-config.xml file 49.This order is then used to determine which headers are to be processedfirst. The delivery context cache 43 is used to help improve performanceon subsequent look-ups. If no device capabilities can be found orprocessed by the chain of handlers 44, the device handler manager 42then uses a default delivery context as defined by an administrativeuser interface.

The illustrated embodiment includes three device recognition handlers44: an XwapProfile handler, a UserAgent handler, and a quarantinehandler. The XwapProfile handler is responsible for processing the“x-wap-profile” and “x-wap-profil-diff” request headers in requests frommobile (client) devices. It makes use of the UAProf parser 47 to parseRDF-compliant files and the UAProf resolver 48 to resolve thedifferences of the headers. The UAProf parser 47 parses RDF-compliantfiles. The UAProf resolver 48 reads resolution rules from thedevice-vocabulary.xml configuration file 50 and uses these rules to helpmerge x-wap-profile and x-wap-profile-diff headers.

The UserAgent handler is responsible for processing the “user-agent”request headers. It uses regular expression matching to best match thecapabilities with the incoming “user-agent” header. If no user-agentheader can be found or one is found but does not match to any existingcapabilities, the request header is passed to the next handler in thechain.

The quarantine handler is responsible for processing any “accept”request headers. If the quarantine handler finds a user-agent header, itwill add a new record in a device match table. Otherwise, it will simplyreturn a delivery context with a set of capabilities determined by the“accept” headers and capabilities already defined by the default deviceprofile.

The device capability manager 37 is capable of managing client devicesin either of two categories: actual devices and generic devices. Inresponse to client device requests, the device capability manager 37uses actual device information from the request and any applicablestored generic device definitions to recognize the accessing clientdevice and its capabilities. The system administrator can define devices(or device capabilities) in either category. An actual device is aparticular make and model of client device, such as “Nokia 6310”. Actualdevices are identified solely from incoming requests, based on theUserAgent and x-wap-profile headers in the requests, for example. Ageneric device is a predefined device or set of device capabilities.Examples of some generic device definitions are: all Nokia devices(e.g., “vendorname=nokia”), all devices with display size >40, and alldevices which support SMS. In response to client device requests, thedevice capability manager 37 uses the UserAgent or x-wap-profile headerto identify the actual device accessing the system and to look up itscorresponding capabilities in the device information database 46, whichare combined with any applicable generic device definitions to determinethe capabilities of the client device. The use of this information isdescribed further below.

It is useful now to define two types of device capabilities which thedevice capability manager is able to resolve: static capabilities andactive capabilities. As defined in the download manager, “static”capabilities are the well-known set of attributes for a given devicewhich are defined during pre-processing, not on-the-fly. These areassociated with a client device as identified in the UserAgent orx-wap-profile headers. Generic devices, as defined above, only havestatic capabilities. “Active” capabilities represent a dynamiccollection of attributes extracted during an interaction between theclient device and the download manager, typically from the Acceptheaders. These two types of device capabilities are stored separately inthe device information database 46.

The ability for a user to discover content based on the static(well-known) capabilities of his device is valuable. With the number ofdevice manufacturers and content providers in the market, there is oftena gap between the interoperability of a given content and how effectiveit can be run on a device. By using the system's unique ability tocapture the capabilities of a device and for content suppliers to selectcompatible devices for their content, the download manager 1 is capableof targeting supported products to their respective devices for asubscriber. In addition, the download manager 1 is able to easily adaptto the ever-changing modifications to capabilities and requirements andis highly scalable as more devices and content are pushed into thesystem, without a substantial decrease in performance.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the product manager 32 in certain embodimentsincludes a product workflow manager 51, a content analysis manager 52, apricing manager 53, and a product catalog 54. The product workflowmanager 51 allows the system administrator to define and modify detailsof the product workflow for processing content submitted by contentproviders. An example of a product workflow is (n chronologicalorder): 1) submission, 2) content analysis, 3) listing of content in theproduct catalog, 4) usage of the content, 5) maintenance of content, and6) content retirement (i.e., cancellation or deletion).

The content analysis manager 52 manages the process of verifying contentquality and compliance with various requirements when the content isinitially submitted by the content supplier (e.g., compliance with itsdeclared type, content structure resource utilization, etc.). Contentmust pass the content analysis process satisfactorily before beinglisted in the product catalog 54 (i.e., published).

The pricing manager 53 allows administrators to add, modify and deletelicense for products in the store. The pricing manager 53 also includesand invokes a set of rating handlers at the time of purchase, which canadjust the price of the product based on various factors (e.g.,promotions, applicable rebates, etc.), as described further below.

The product catalog 54 contains descriptions of all published items ofcontent (products). Referring to FIG. 5, the catalog 54 includes, foreach product entry 56, a reference 58 to at least one implementation 57of that product. An implementation 57 can be simply a binary file (a“binary”) representing the product. In some cases, however, animplementation 57 may represent two or more binaries 61, as shown inFIG. 6. Also as represented in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, any particular productmay have multiple implementations published on the download manager,each of which may be designed for a different specific client device orset of client devices.

Hence, any particular product entry in the catalog 54 can includereferences to multiple implementations of the product. However, theproducts shown to any particular subscriber when the subscriber viewsthe catalog are filtered according to the device capabilities of thesubscriber's device. More specifically, only those products that have atleast one implementation compatible with the subscriber's device areshown to the subscriber. As shown in FIG. 5, each implementation entry57 also includes a list (59A or 59B) of devices supported by thatimplementation. Each product entry 56 in the catalog 54 includes a list59 of the devices that are supported by that product. Which representsthe aggregation of all of the devices supported by all of theimplementations 57 of that product.

In addition, for any particular product, the catalog may include adescription 60 of the product in multiple different languages, toaccommodate subscribers in different countries. Product descriptions 60are shown to each subscriber in the appropriate language, and the pricesof products are shown in the appropriate currency, according to thedomain of which the subscriber is a member. The domain of the subscriberis identified by the domain manager 62, as described below.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the business & operations manager 33 incertain embodiments includes an operation administration and management(OA&M) module 61, a domain manager 62, and a payment manager 63. TheOA&M module 61 provides a Web based user interface for administering thedownload manager 1. It supports role-based delegation of administrationduties (e.g., system administrator, domain administrator, productadministrator, customer care administrator, etc.) and interfaces withthe provisioning manager to provide logging and reporting of key eventsand transactions.

The payment manager 63 is responsible for the process of chargingsubscribers when they purchase content and supports multiple differentlanguages and currencies, partitioned by domain. The approach to billingand payment assumes that there are local billing mechanisms in place,each of which has an established relationship to the subscriber already.The local billing mechanism operates in the local currency using thelocal taxes, fees and other applicable charges for the subscriber'sregion. It also invoices at intervals that are customary for the region.

In certain embodiments of the invention, a subscriber can select thepreferred payment model to use of three available payment models:

-   -   Online payment—payment is performed ‘just-in-time’. A typical        implementation performs the payment transaction at the time of        the purchase.    -   Pre-paid payments—payment is performed before purchase and the        purchase is deducted from the pre-paid amount.    -   Post payments—payment is performed after the purchase by        invoice.

A separate payment handler of a set of payment handlers 64 is accessibleto the payment manager 63 for each of these payment models (see FIG. 3),and the payment manager is responsible for invoking the appropriatepayment handler 64 at the time of purchase.

Referring now to FIG. 7, anytime a subscriber logs in to the downloadmanager, a session 71 is created. The session 71 holds a reference to aunique subscriber profile 72 associated with the subscriber. Eachsubscriber has such a subscriber profile, which points to theorganization that holds the billing relationship with the subscriber(i.e., the partner responsible for invoicing the subscriber) and anindication of the subscriber's selected payment model (i.e., post-paid,pre-paid, or online).

The download manager 1 also maintains a subscriber provider profile 73for each subscriber provider (e.g., wireless carrier, etc.). Eachsubscriber provider profile 73 holds a reference to each of the paymenthandlers 64, an indication of the local currency, and an indication ofany value added tax and/or other charges that normally apply to theoffered services in the region.

The product catalog 54, as described above, holds the name, descriptionand price of each product, as well as information indicating thesupported devices. There is a separate entry for each supported localcurrency. There are no dependencies between the prices in variouscurrencies for the same product.

This approach allows a product (or service) to have many differentprices, on in each supported currency. There are no dependencies betweenprices other than that they all apply to one product. This approach,therefore, supports localized pricing policies and local taxes, etc.

The payment manager 63 includes a set of rating handlers (not shown),which are responsible for adjusting the price of products based onvarious factors, such as promotional offers, applying rebates, etc.Prices of content may change from time to time, subject to factors suchas rebates, promotions, etc. At the time of purchase, the price of theproduct is determined by invoking the rating handlers. Each ratinghandler is called by the payment manager 63 with a reference to thecorresponding product license and a reference to the subscriber. Therating handler is responsible for adjusting the price, if appropriate,and returning a new price.

Each of the payment handlers includes a charge method. During purchasethe charge method of the registered payment handler for the paymentmodel selected by the subscriber is called. The argument to the chargemethod is a data structure, ChargeDetailRecord, generated by the paymentmanager 63, which holds information about the subscriber, the product,the product license with the price, and the domain of the subscriber.The charge method can either approve the charge and, thus, allow thepurchase, or it can deny the purchase.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the domain manager 62 manages theassociations between domains and partners, subscribers, suppliers, andproducts, and stores all of the domain information. As noted above, eachdomain can have the following properties:

-   -   a name (localized)    -   a description (localized)    -   a uniform resource locator (URL) to a web site giving further        description of the domain    -   a contact address including contact person, contact telephone        numbers, fax numbers and postal address    -   the currency to use for billing and display purposes    -   reference to handlers for online payment, pre-payment and        post-payment    -   a set of references to rating handlers

The domain manager 62 enables flexible business models to be implementedvia revenue sharing between, and charging by, different stakeholders(partners).

Various aspects of the operation of the download manager 1 will now bedescribed further with reference to FIGS. 8 through 13. FIG. 8illustrates a simplified process by which a product can be listed in theproduct catalog in a way that facilitates device-tailored productdiscovery and provisioning, according to an embodiment of the invention.Certain operations in the product workflow are not shown in FIG. 8 tofacilitate explanation, such as content analysis and approval.Initially, at block 801 the download manager 1 receives inputs from aproduct supplier defining a product and one or more implementations ofthat product. At block 802, the download manager receives inputs fromthe supplier specifying one or more devices (actual or generic) whichsupport each implementation and one or more provisioning protocols to beused for each implementation. At block 803 the download manager 1 storesthe product definition, the implementations, and a list of all of thesupported devices and provisioning protocols. Finally, at block 804 thedownload manager 1 determines the set of all possible devices whichsupport the product and stores this information in association with theproduct information in the product catalog 54.

FIG. 9 shows a process by which the catalog is displayed to asubscriber, according to an embodiment of the invention. At block 901 aclient device operated by the subscriber connects to the downloadmanager 1. The domain manager 62 then identifies the domain of thesubscriber at bock 902 based on its stored domain and subscriberassociations. At block 903, the product manager 32 selects the languageand currency to be used based on the domain of the subscriber (eachdomain has one language and currency). At block 904, the devicecapability manager 37 identifies the client device (e.g., from theUserAgent or x-wap-profile header) and its corresponding set of static(well-known) device capabilities. When a request to view availableproducts is received from the client device (block 905), at block 906the product manager 32 determines from the product catalog 54 whichproducts are supported by the client device, based on the (static)capabilities of the client device. The download manager 1 then sends aresponse to the client at block 907, to cause the client device todisplay product information relating to only those products supported bythe client device, in the appropriate currency and language for thesubscriber's domain.

FIG. 10 shows a process by which a purchase of a product can be made,according to an embodiment of the invention. After displaying theproduct catalog 54 to the subscriber, the download manager 1 receivesthe subscriber's selection of the product to purchase at block 1001. Atblock 1002 the pricing manager 53 calls all of the registered ratingadapters. The rating adapters then adjust the price of the selectedproduct, if appropriate, at block 1003. At block 1004 the pricingmanager 53 then presents a license object indicating the price to thesubscriber. If the subscriber confirms the purchase (block 1005), thenat block 1006 the provisioning manager requests the payment manager 63to charge the applicable price for the product. The payment manager 63responds at block 1007 by selecting the applicable payment handler 44based on the domain to which the subscriber belongs and the subscriber'spreferred payment model (pre-paid, post-paid, or online). Finally, atblock 1008 the selected payment handler 44 performs the charge method tocomplete the transaction.

Multiple Provisioning Models

Different client devices often require different content provisioningprotocols and packaging formats. In order to make a given item ofdigital content available to multiple mobile devices supportingdifferent provisioning models, a digital content supplier would normallyhave to deploy that item of content multiple times, packaging itdifferently for each of the provisioning models. The download manager 1,however, separates content from how it is provisioned to a device. Asdescribed above and as illustrated conceptually in FIG. 11, in thedownload manager 1 the product information is separated from the contentitself, the content is separated from how it is packaged for delivery,the packaged content is separated from the delivery mechanism, and thedelivery mechanism is separated from the discovery mechanism (themechanism by which the subscriber discovers a product). By virtue ofthis separation, a content supplier is able to deploy content only once,targeting a wide range of devices, and the download manager 1 willdeliver the content to those devices over a wide range of provisioningprotocols.

When a product is submitted to the download manager 1 by a supplier, thesupplier specifies which devices are supported by each implementation ofthe product. This information is then stored by the download manager 1and used to select the proper packaging and provisioning protocol whenthe product is subsequently purchased.

The provisioning model used to provision a particular product in aparticular client device is based on the device capabilities of theclient device as well as the content type of the best-fitimplementation. A provisioning “model”, in this context, includes aparticular provisioning protocol and a content packaging format. Theability to deliver the “best-fit” content based on “active” (dynamic)capabilities of a device is advantageous. Content provisioning providesthe second part of targeting products to a given subscriber based on hisdevice's capabilities. Whereas product discovery as described aboverelies on the “static” capabilities, provisioning relies on the “active”capabilities to determine the exact and often new enhancements of theclient device. Given that a device can be fitted or enhanced with newfeatures not described by the default set of capabilities originallyintended for the device, the download manager 1 can use these activecapabilities to find the best match content to provision to the device.

FIG. 12 illustrates a process by which a product is provisioned in aclient device using the appropriate one of various provisioningprotocols. At block 1201, in response to a subscriber purchasing aproduct, the delivery manager 31 selects the best implementation of theproduct based on the device capabilities (static and active) of theclient device. At block 1202 the download manager retrieves the contenttype of the selected implementation (e.g., MIDIet, EXE file, applet,iAppli, etc.). At block 1203 the download manager 1 selects theappropriate provisioning model available for that implementation, basedon the device capabilities of the client device and the content type ofthe selected implementation. The provisioning manager 28 then creates acontent descriptor for the implementation at block 1204, based on theselected provisioning model. The content descriptor specifies the nameof the content to be provisioned, the size of the content, a location(e.g., a URL) at which the content is stored, and the content type ofthe content. The content descriptor is unique to the provisioninghandler (protocol) of the selected provisioning model.

The provisioning manager 28 then downloads the content descriptor to theclient device at block 1205. The client device parses the descriptor andthen requests the content. When the provisioning manager 28 receives therequest for the content from the client device at block 1206, theprovisioning manager 28 responds at block 1207 by downloading thecontent using the provisioning protocol of the selected provisioningmodel (e.g., COD OTA, Openwave Download Fun, MIDP OTA, etc.)

Download Manager Deployment Architecture

FIG. 13 shows an example of the software deployment architecture of thedownload manager 1 at a high level, according to an embodiment of theinvention. Each instance of the download manager 1 resides on a host 131that has access to a database 140. The host 131 is a server-classcomputer system including an operating system (e.g., Solaris). Thedatabase 140 may represent multiple physical databases, which inaggregate store all of the data used by the download manager 1 (i.e.,product information, subscriber information, partner information, domaininformation, etc.). In the illustrated embodiment, each host 131includes a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 132 which runs on top of theoperating system and which hosts an application server 133. On top ofthe application server 133 is a Web container 134 that contains JavaServer Pages (JSPs) 135 and servlets 136 as well as applicationcomponents 137 including the business logic and data access layer 138 ofthe download manager 1.

The download manager 1 is formed by the Web container 134 and itscontents, the application components 137, and at least a portion of thedatabase 140. Horizontal scaling can be achieved by adding more hosts131 hosting instances of the download manager 1. In that case, anInternet Protocol (IP) load balancer 139 provides sticky load balancing,i.e., directing all session-specific traffic to the same host.

The above-described software architecture (i.e., the download manager)can be implemented in one or more conventional server-class computersystems. FIG. 14 illustrates the hardware architecture of such acomputer system at a high-level. Note that this architecture is alsorepresentative of at least some client devices that access the downloadmanager 1. Note also that FIG. 14 is a conceptual representation whichrepresents any of numerous possible specific physical arrangements ofhardware components; however, the details of such arrangements are notgermane to the present invention and are well within the knowledge ofthose skilled in the art.

The processing system shown in FIG. 14 includes one or more processors140, i.e. a central processing unit (CPU), read-only memory (ROM) 141,and random access memory (RAM) 142, each connected to a bus system 146.Also coupled to the bus system 146 are a mass storage device 143, a datacommunication device 144, and in some embodiments, one or moreadditional input/output (I/O) devices 145.

The processor(s) 140 may be, or may include, one or more programmablegeneral-purpose or special-purpose microprocessors or digital signalprocessors (DSPs), microcontrollers, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or a combination ofsuch devices. The bus system 146 includes one or more buses or otherphysical connections, which may be connected to each other throughvarious bridges, bus controllers and/or adapters such as are well-knownin the art. For example, the bus system 146 may include a “system bus”,which may be connected through one or more adapters to one or moreexpansion buses, such as a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus,HyperTransport or industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, smallcomputer system interface (SCSI) bus, universal serial bus (USB), orInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 1394bus (sometimes referred to as “Firewire”). In alternative embodiments,some or all of the aforementioned components may be connected to eachother directly, rather than through a bus system.

The mass storage device 143 may be, or may include, any one or moredevices suitable for storing large volumes of data in a non-volatilemanner, such as a magnetic disk or tape, magneto-optical (MO) storagedevice, or any of various types of Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) orCompact Disk (CD) based storage, or a combination of such devices.

The data communication device 144 is a device suitable for enabling theprocessing system to communicate data with a remote processing systemover a data communication link 148, and may be, for example, aconventional telephone modem, a wireless modem, an Integrated ServicesDigital Network (ISDN) adapter, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem, acable modem, a radio transceiver, a satellite transceiver, an Ethernetadapter, or the like.

The I/O devices 145 (which may be omitted in a system that operatesexclusively as a server and provides no direct local user interface) mayinclude, for example, one or more devices such as: a pointing devicesuch as a mouse, trackball, touchpad, or the like; a keyboard; audiospeakers; and/or a display device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), aliquid crystal display (LCD), or the like. Other variations upon theillustrated set of components can be implemented in a manner consistentwith the invention.

Software (including instructions and data) 147 to implement thetechniques described above may be stored in one or more of ROM 141, RAM142, and mass storage device 143. In certain embodiments, the software147 may be initially loaded into the processing system by downloading itfrom a remote system through the communication device 144.

Thus, a system and method for managing the publication, purchase anddelivery of digital content from multiple content suppliers to multiplewireless services subscribers in multiple domains have been described.Although the present invention has been described with reference tospecific exemplary embodiments, it will be recognized that the inventionis not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced withmodification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regardedin an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

1. A method of providing access to digital products for use in wirelesscommunication devices, the method comprising: operating a server systemto store domain data defining a plurality of domains, each domaincorresponding to a different subset of a plurality of wireless servicessubscribers, each said subset of the plurality of wireless servicessubscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, eachof the domains further corresponding to a particular billingrelationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset ofthe plurality of wireless services subscribers, each of the domainshaving assigned thereto to a particular set of digital products designedfor use in wireless communication devices that are accessible to thewireless services subscribers in that domain; operating the serversystem to enable a plurality of digital products suppliers to publish onthe server system digital products designed for use in wirelesscommunication devices via a computer network such that the digitalproducts are accessible to the plurality of wireless servicessubscribers; and operating the server system to enable wireless servicessubscribers in each of the plurality of domains to acquire the digitalproducts via at least one wireless network and to use the acquireddigital products on associated wireless communication devices.
 2. Amethod as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of domains furthercorrespond to a delegation of administrative responsibilities for thedigital products and the subscribers.
 3. A method as recited in claim 2,wherein: each of the subscribers is a member of exactly one of thedomains.
 4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the domainshas an associated currency for use in presenting digital products to thesubscribers and for billing the subscribers for digital products, wherethe currency of each domain can be set independently of the currency ofevery other domain, the currency of each domain being indicated in theserver system by the domain data corresponding to each said domain.
 5. Amethod as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the domains has anassociated language for use in communicating with the subscribersbelonging to the domain, where the language of each domain being can beset independently of the language of every other domain, the language ofeach domain being indicated in the server system by the domain datacorresponding to each said domain.
 6. A method as recited in claim 1,further comprising operating the server system to enable the digitalproducts suppliers to manage their respective digital products stored onthe server system via the computer network.
 7. A method as recited inclaim 1, further comprising determining a price for each of the items ofdigital products, where the price of each of the items of digitalproducts can be set independently for each of the plurality of domains.8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising: receiving arequest from one of the subscribers to access digital products;identifying the domain in which the subscriber is included in responseto the request; determining a language which corresponds to the domainin which the subscriber is included; causing a product catalog includingdescriptions of available digital products to be presented to thesubscriber in said language, based on the domain in which the subscriberis included; receiving a selection from the subscriber of an item ofdigital products in the product catalog; determining a price and acurrency for the selected item based on the domain in which thesubscriber is included; and causing the price to be presented to thesubscriber in terms of said currency.
 9. A method as recited in claim 1,the plurality of domains further being defined such that each of thesubscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for adomain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to viewdescriptions of digital products of any domain with which thesubscribers is not associated.
 10. A method comprising: maintaining, ina server system, data defining a plurality of domains, each domaincorresponding to a different subset of a plurality of wireless servicessubscribers, each said subset including more than one wireless servicessubscriber, each of the domains corresponding to a particular billingrelationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset of aplurality of wireless services subscribers, including specifying foreach of the domains a language for purposes of allowing wirelessservices subscribers to identify and obtain digital products, where thelanguage for each domain can be set independently of the language ofevery other domain, and further including specifying for each of thedomains a currency in which digital products is to be expressed towireless subscribers for purposes of wireless services subscribersobtaining digital products, where the currency for each domain can beset independently of the currency of every other domain; enabling aplurality of digital product providers to publish the digital productson the server system; enabling each of the subscribers to viewdescriptions of at least some of the digital products and to request thedigital products from the server system, such that each of thesubscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for adomain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to viewdescriptions of digital products of any domain with which the subscriberis not associated; and provisioning the requested digital products inwireless communications devices of the subscribers via at least onewireless network.
 11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein saidmaintaining data defining a plurality of domains comprises maintaining,in the server system, data defining an association between each of thesubscribers and one of the domains.
 12. A method as recited in claim 11,further comprising executing a payment process to charge the subscribersfor said provisioning.
 13. A method as recited in claim 10, furthercomprising maintaining a product catalog containing descriptions of thedigital products.
 14. A method as recited in claim 10, furthercomprising enabling the digital product suppliers to manage digitalproducts which they have caused to be published on the server system.15. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising determining aprice for at least one of the digital products independently for each ofthe plurality domains.
 16. A method as recited in claim 10, furthercomprising: receiving a request from one of the subscribers to accessdigital products; identifying the domain of which the subscribers is amember in response to the request; determining a language whichcorresponds to the domain of which the subscriber is a member; causing aproduct catalog including descriptions of available digital products tobe presented to the subscriber in said language; receiving a selectionfrom the subscriber of a digital product included in the productcatalog; determining a price and a currency for the selected digitalproduct based on the domain of which the subscriber is a member; andcausing the price to be presented to the subscriber in terms of saidcurrency.
 17. A system comprising: means for maintaining an associationbetween each of a plurality of subscribers of wireless services and oneof a plurality of domains into which the plurality of subscribers aregrouped, each domain corresponding to a group of the wireless servicessubscribers and including a different subset of the plurality ofsubscribers, each said subset of the plurality of wireless servicessubscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, eachof the domains further corresponding to a particular billingrelationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset ofthe plurality of wireless services subscribers, each of the domainshaving assigned thereto a particular set of digital products designedfor use in wireless communication devices that are accessible to thewireless services subscribers in that domain; and means for managingpublication, management and delivery of digital products by a pluralityof digital products suppliers to the subscribers in each of theplurality of domains.
 18. A system as recited in claim 17, the pluralityof domains further being defined such that each of the subscribers isable to view descriptions of digital products for a domain with whichthe subscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions ofdigital products of any domain with which the subscriber is notassociated.
 19. A system as recited in claim 17, further comprising:means for specifying for each of the domains a language for purposes ofallowing wireless services subscribers to identify and obtain digitalproducts, where the language for each domain can be set independently ofthe language of every other domain; and means for specifying for each ofthe domains a currency in which content is to be expressed to wirelesssubscribers for purposes of wireless services subscribers obtainingdigital products, where the currency for each domain can be setindependently of the currency of every other domain.
 20. A system toprovide digital products from a plurality of digital products suppliersto a plurality of wireless services subscribers using a plurality ofwireless communications devices, the system comprising: memory forstoring instructions and data; and one or more processors for processingthe instructions and data to implement: a domain manager to maintain anassociation between each of the wireless services subscribers and one ofa plurality of domains into which the plurality of wireless servicessubscribers are grouped, each domain corresponding to a different subsetof the plurality of wireless services subscribers, each said subset ofthe plurality of wireless services subscribers including more than onewireless services subscriber, each of the domains further correspondingto a particular billing relationship between a business entity and thecorresponding subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers,each of the domains having assigned thereto a particular set of digitalproducts designed for use in wireless communication devices that areaccessible to the wireless services subscribers in that domain; aproduct manager to manage publication of digital products designed foruse in wireless communication devices on the system by the plurality ofdigital products suppliers; a delivery manager to manage delivery of anitem of digital products designed for use in wireless communicationdevices to a wireless communications device of a requesting subscribervia a wireless network in conjunction with a received request for theitem of digital products; and a payment manager to execute a paymentprocess for charging the requesting subscriber for the item of digitalproducts.
 21. A system as recited in claim 20, further comprising: aproduct catalog containing descriptions of available digital products,and a pricing manager to determine and indicate a price for an item ofdigital products in response to a signal from the wirelesscommunications device of the requesting subscriber, wherein the price isdetermined according to a domain of which the requesting subscriber is amember.
 22. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein each of thesubscribers is a member of exactly one domain of the plurality ofdomains.
 23. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein the plurality ofdomains corresponds to a delegation of administrative responsibilitiesfor the digital products and the subscribers.
 24. A method as recited inclaim 23, wherein: each of the subscribers is a member of exactly one ofthe domains.
 25. A system as recited in claim 20, the plurality ofdomains further being defined such that each of the subscribers is ableto view descriptions of digital products for a domain with which thesubscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions of digitalproducts of any domain with which the subscriber is not associated. 26.A system as recited in claim 20, the domain manager further to enablespecification, for each of the domains, of a language for purposes ofallowing wireless services subscribers to identify and obtain digitalproducts, where the language for each domain can be set independently ofthe language of every other domain; and the domain manager further toenable specification, for each of the domains, of currency in whichdigital products is to be expressed to wireless subscribers for purposesof wireless services subscribers obtaining digital products, where thecurrency for each domain can be set independently of the currency ofevery other domain.
 27. A system to manage publication and delivery ofdigital products to users of a plurality of wireless communicationscommunication devices operating on a wireless network, the users beingwireless services subscribers, the plurality of wireless clientcommunication devices being registered to and operable by the users toaccess the wireless services, the system comprising: memory for storinginstructions and data; and one or more processors for processing theinstructions and data to implement: a domain manager to maintain datadefining an association between each of the subscribers and one of aplurality of domains into which the subscribers are grouped, each domaindefined as a group of the wireless services subscribers and including adifferent subset of the plurality of subscribers, each of the domainscorresponding to a particular billing relationship between a businessentity and a particular subset of the plurality of subscribers, eachsubscriber being a member of exactly one of the domains, each saidsubset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers including morethan one wireless services subscriber, each of the domains havingassigned thereto a particular set of digital products designed for usein wireless communication devices that are accessible to the wirelessservices subscribers in that domain; a set of protocol handlers, eachprotocol handler to enable the system to communicate with wirelessclient communication devices over at least one wireless network using aseparate associated protocol; a product manager to manage submission andpublication of digital products by a plurality of digital productssuppliers, wherein the product manager includes a product catalogcontaining descriptions of available digital products, and a pricingmanager to determine and indicate a price for an item of digitalproducts in response to a signal from a wireless communicationscommunication device of the plurality of wireless communicationscommunication devices, wherein the price is determined according to adomain in which a requesting subscriber is included; a delivery managerto manage delivery of the item of digital products to the mobile clientcommunication device via at least one wireless network in conjunctionwith a received request for the item of digital products; and a paymentmanager to execute a payment process for charging the requestingsubscriber for rights to use the item of digital products.
 28. A systemas recited in claim 27, the plurality of domains further being definedsuch that each of the subscribers is able to view descriptions ofdigital products for a domain with which the subscriber is associatedbut is not able to view descriptions of digital products of any domainwith which the subscriber is not associated.
 29. A system as recited inclaim 28, the domain manager further to enable specification, for eachof the domains, of a language for purposes of allowing wireless servicessubscribers to identify and obtain digital products, where the languagefor each domain can be set independently of the language of every otherdomain; and the domain manager further to enable specification, for eachof the domains, of a currency in which digital products is to beexpressed to wireless subscribers for purposes of wireless servicessubscribers obtaining digital products, where the currency for eachdomain can be set independently of the currency of every other domain.30. A method of providing access to digital merchant offerings for usein wireless communication devices, the method comprising: providing at aserver system domain data defining a plurality of domains, each domaincorresponding to a different subset of a plurality of wireless servicessubscribers, each said subset of the plurality of wireless servicessubscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, eachof the domains further corresponding to a particular billingrelationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset ofthe plurality of wireless services subscribers, each of the domainshaving assigned thereto to a particular set of digital merchantofferings available for use in wireless communication devices that areaccessible to the wireless services subscribers in that domain;operating the server system to enable a plurality of digital productssuppliers to provide access through the server system digital merchantofferings available for use in wireless communication devices via acomputer network such that the digital products are accessible to theplurality of wireless services subscribers; and operating the serversystem to enable wireless services subscribers in each of the pluralityof domains to acquire the digital merchant offerings via at least onewireless network and to use the acquired digital merchant offerings onassociated wireless communication devices.
 31. The method of claim 30,where the associated wireless communication devices include cellulartelephones that are configured for functions in addition to telephony,the functions including one or more of: playing games, accessing WorldWide Web pages, exchanging email, exchanging and downloading files,exchanging short messaging service (SMS) messages, and sending andreceiving video.
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein the merchantofferings are provided from a centralized store.
 33. The method of claim30, wherein the merchant offerings are provided from a centralized storeand embody at least one of: a data set for a game application, a dataset for an applet; a data set for an image; a data set for ascreensaver; a wallpaper data set; and a data set for a ring tone.
 34. Asystem, comprising: a server configured for providing access to digitalmerchant offerings for use in wireless communication devices, andfurther configured for providing at a server system domain data defininga plurality of domains, each domain corresponding to a different subsetof a plurality of wireless services subscribers, each said subset of theplurality of wireless services subscribers including more than onewireless services subscriber, each of the domains further correspondingto a particular billing relationship between a business entity and thecorresponding subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers,each of the domains having assigned thereto to a particular set ofdigital merchant offerings available for use in wireless communicationdevices that are accessible to the wireless services subscribers in thatdomain; and wherein the server system operates to enable a plurality ofdigital products suppliers to provide access through the server systemdigital merchant offerings available for use in wireless communicationdevices via a computer network such that the digital products areaccessible to the plurality of wireless services subscribers, and toenable wireless services subscribers in each of the plurality of domainsto acquire the digital merchant offerings via at least one wirelessnetwork and to use the acquired digital merchant offerings on associatedwireless communication devices.